PRESS RELEASE
Information Bureau
Communist Party of the Philippines

GMA can't think of better pretext to scuttle talks with NDFP?--Ka Roger
July 7, 2003

The spokesman of the Communist Party of the Philippines lambasted as "ludicrous" Malacañang's "allegation of NPA drug links as its newest concoction to scuttle the peace talks" between the government and the National Democratic Front.

"Can't Arroyo and her spin doctors think of a better and less incredulous reason not to talk peace with the NDF," CPP spokesperson Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal said.

Yesterday, government chief negotiatior Silvestre Bello III said peace talks are stalled while they look into President Arroyo's allegation that the NPA has links with illegal drugs. Rosal said Bello should know that, because he used to be with the democratic mass movement. Rosal today thanked Bello for accepting the Party's denial through a DZXL radio interview that the NPA is involved in illegal drugs, "even if he did not want to publicly admit that his president is lying through her teeth about it."

"She is hallucinating," said Rosal. "Parang siyang bangag sa droga. (She seems to be high in drugs.) Arroyo is talking nonsense," referring to Arroyo's allegation last Saturday that the NPA has links with illegal drugs.

"Even her people at the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency have clarified that they have no conclusion that the NPA is linked to illegal drugs," Rosal pointed out.

"Nangangatog nga ang tuhod ng mga drug lords sa NPA, sasabihin pa ngayon ni Arroyo, sangkot ang NPA sa drugs! (Drug lords tremble before the NPA and yet Arroyo has no qualms to link the NPA to drugs!)" Rosal added, "Drug lords know very well that unlike the politicians and the military, the NPA cannot be corrupted or bribed with drug money and in fact is actively and persistently hunting them down as enemies of the people."

"Maybe Arroyo also wants the US Drug Enforcement Agency come in with more aid and US military intervention just as the US use the supposed drug links of the revolutionary FARC as pretext to pouring in aid and engage in military intervention in Colombia?" Rosal asked.

"Unlike the Arroyo government that is largely dependent on foreign aid and loans for its operations, the NPA and the revolutionary movement rely mainly on the boundless support of the people," Rosal said in reaction to the allegation by President Arroyo that the NPA has resorted to planting marijuana to raise money. "The NPA considers illegal drugs as a antisocial and counterrevolutionary activity, has no use for it, not even a single bloody centavo from it, and in fact aggressively fights the business and use of illegal drugs."

At the same time, Rosal also pointed out that soldiers have been known to use drugs themselves. "Aside from being drunk, officers and men of the AFP are known to be high in drugs when they go on operations, torture suspects, loot and burn down communities and carry out other inhuman acts. They also try to corrupt and weaken the revolutionary resolve of NPA-organized areas by trying to lure the peasant youth into taking drugs. Their high commands are in fact the ones behind the entire drug business and syndicates."

"The fact is that Arroyo's media spinners has just now thought of this illegal drugs issue only to buttress its questionable "terrorist" tag on the CPP-NPA to scuttle the GRP-NDFP peace talks as well as to cover up the widespread knowledge that it is her AFP and PNP that is steeped in the drug business," Rosal asserted. "It is becoming ever clearer that Arroyo really has no interest in facing the NDF in peace negotiations. First, the 'terrorist' tagging. Now, illegal drugs. What next?"

"Talking peace with the NDF is something that is totally incomprehensible for Arroyo who is high with addiction to US intervention and US-sponsored militarism," Rosal added.

"If Arroyo does not want to talk, it is better for her to just say so. Anyway, we can always wait for a president to replace her who is more open-minded, really willing to talk peace and ready to respect past agreements," Rosal added. "Otherwise, she is just fooling the people, and even some of her followers like House Speaker Jose de Venecia and Secretary Bello, who are hopeful that GRP-NDFP talks can soon resume." ###

Reference:
Anne Buenaventura
Media Officer
Cellphone Number: +63910-240-3553



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